4.4 Immersive Mode: UI folds; one capsule for Read / Write / Recall. Recall blurs excerpts; tap to reveal after recall. AI Hint can run on Apple Intelligence on-device.
MarginNote is the PDF study tool for deep readers. One excerpt is a PDF highlight, a mind map node, and a flashcard — one capture, three places. This is the Card Axis architecture, so you stop ferrying content between a PDF reader, a notes app, and a flashcard tool. A decade of iteration. 188K+ App Store ratings.
【Four Featured Mechanics】
▸ Card Axis — One excerpt, three renders. Document highlight, mind map node, and flashcard are the same card seen from three angles.
▸ Title Link — Old notes auto-surface in new documents. When a familiar concept appears in what you're reading, your past annotation lights up on the page.
▸ Extended Note — Long-press anywhere on a PDF to open writing space. No anchored text required; three display modes (inline / margin / collapsed).
▸ Immersive Mode (4.4) — Three-state toggle: Read / Write / Recall. UI folds away. Recall blurs excerpts with Gaussian blur — tap to reveal only after you've actually recalled.
【AI Capabilities (introduced in 4.2)】
AI book breakdown · AI OCR templates · AI translation · AI Q&A · AI flashcard generation
Our stance is AI as assistant, not replacement — every suggestion can be saved as your own thinking node, never thinking for you.
【Apple Intelligence (iOS 26+)】
Recall Mode hints can run on-device via Apple Intelligence — pick "Apple AI" or "cloud LLM" in Settings. With Apple AI selected, three tiers of help — Neighbor Coordinate · Reasoning Prompt · Key Distinction — are generated by Apple Foundation Models right on your device: no network calls, no AI credits used, your notes never leave your device. Even if you've selected cloud LLM, going offline auto-falls back to Apple Intelligence (provided your device supports it) — so libraries, planes, and exam-day silent rooms never break your hint loop.
【Full Workflow】
Fast OCR · Study Sets (PDF / EPUB / video / audio) · direct read from Zotero / cloud drives / USB · 10 mind map styles · book recomposition · dual-document compare · concept maps · handwriting layers
【FSRS Spaced Repetition】
Built on the open-spaced-repetition project's algorithm (paper accepted by ACM SIGKDD; Anki has used FSRS as its default scheduler since v23.10). Push short-term memory into long-term.
【Built For】
Anyone re-reading a single document until it sticks — med school (USMLE / MCAT) · law school (LSAT / bar exam) · grad prep (GRE / GMAT / CFA) · researchers · language learners (IELTS / TOEFL) · serious readers.
【All Apple Platforms】
iPhone + iPad + Mac under one Apple ID. iCloud syncs Study Sets, notes, and review progress. Native Apple Pencil support on iPad.
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Questions? Email service@marginnote.com
Terms: https://dist.marginnote.com/MarginNote_Terms_and_Conditions.pdf
Privacy: https://dist.marginnote.com/MarginNote_Privacy_Policy.pdf
Marginnote 3 has been my go to app reading for reading ebooks and taking notes and doing research. But it has been laggy. That was my frustration with it. I’m glad that Marginnote 4 solves this problem- way faster and has significantly eliminated the lagginess. I’m happy that they made those who purchase 3 a free upgrade (for a set time that is, so make the leap fast). Love this app to bits!
Love this but…
summertee_
Sometimes the highlight-card-creation does not read the word properly, so syllabus like “th”, “fl”, “ff”… cannot be properly read and have to manually edit the cards.
Developer Response
Hello, is it convenient for you to log on to our forum and describe in detail the situation you encountered? This will enable us to help you better.
Quite good and brilliant idea for book reading
jovis9611
But if can improve for book search functionality with multi tag and display imported book based on section will be more better.
it is better if i can edit the pdf and has advance mind maping
syahzuhair
it is better if i can edit the pdf ( rotate the page ,add or insert pdf page from ther book) and has advance mind maping ( like ithoughts hd)
New/Improvements:
Immersive Mode & Recall Mode Experience Optimization
- Added the hand tool to the handwriting toolbar in Immersive/Recall mode, which can be used to drag the canvas or browse pages.
- The bottom toolbar in Immersive mode can now be collapsed into a three-dot control to reduce interface obstruction.
- Immersive mode now supports Research Browser: You can open the Research Browser panel for document excerpts/mind map cards while in Immersive mode, presented as a floating window, making it easy to look up information while reading.
- Optimized excerpt/handwriting toolbar menus in Immersive mode: Supports adjusting the tool order in the menu bar, keeping it consistent with classic mode, and duplicated tools will now be fully displayed.
- iPhone experience optimization: When opening a study set that hasn't recorded an immersive state for the first time, it now defaults to Immersive mode, significantly improving the small-screen experience without affecting the same study set's settings on iPad and Mac; the document/mind map linked view now supports adjusting the split ratio.
- Added a "Show One-by-One" option in recall mode. When enabled, only one revealed excerpt or mind map card is displayed at a time, making the recall pace more controllable.
- Handwriting is now supported in recall mode.
New "Legacy Features" Settings Section
- Centralized management of toggles for Trash (Legacy), legacy recall mode, legacy handwriting toolbar icons, and more (Settings → Legacy Features). The legacy recall mode is only available in non-immersive mode, and related menus and keyboard shortcuts will be limited accordingly.
Overall Performance & Experience Optimization
- Reduced potential stutter during selection changes while keeping the interface refreshing normally; also optimized stability when handling AI conversation errors.
Fixes:
- Fixed the issue where the eraser shortcut was not working in Immersive mode on Mac, and improved the stability of related shortcuts.
- Fixed the issue where formula styles were not loaded correctly on macOS 26.5.
- Fixed the issue where math formulas in note cards could display abnormally.
- Fixed a display anomaly with the toolbar in Immersive mode.
- Fixed the issue where tapping on a blank area could not clear the text selection when prompt status was enabled in immersive recall mode.
- Fixed the issue where the tool order could be lost after handwriting tool settings were synced.
- Fixed the issue where recall prompt screenshots could capture the wrong page under virtual documents.
- Fixed the issue where typing or tapping was temporarily unresponsive right after a plugin pop-up appeared.
- Fixed display anomalies with colors, cursor, and prompt labels in the chat input box under dark mode.
- Fixed the issue where Korean book titles could be truncated or displayed abnormally in the book switcher.
Version 4.4.1
Subscriptions
MarginNote Max Annual
Full Max access with yearly billing
Free Trial
The developer, Beijing Yunsi Software Technology Co., Ltd, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
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The following data may be used to track you across apps and websites owned by other companies:
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Data Not Linked to You
The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:
Identifiers
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Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
Provider
Beijing Yunsi Software Technology Co., Ltd
Size
338.5 MB
Category
Productivity
Compatibility
Requires iOS 17.0 or later.
iPhone Requires iOS 17.0 or later.
iPad Requires iPadOS 17.0 or later.
Mac Requires macOS 14.0 or later.
Apple Vision Requires visionOS 1.0 or later.
Languages
English and 4 more
English, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese